Last week, we held a TweetChat with Cisco’s new Global Partner Marketing VP Amanda Jobbins.

During the hour-long Twitter session, we covered a lot of ground–Amanda’s Partner Marketing priorities, new campaigns for partners, what she heard on her listening tour with partners, and ways that Cisco is helping partners use social media.

We also learned some interesting factoids about Amanda and how she’s adjusting to life in the United States after living in the U.K.

If you missed the chat, we’ve got a recap of what was discussed, including Amanda’s answers to some great audience questions. This is the first of many discussions Amanda plans to have with partners and wants to continue the dialog to ensure that marketing programs reflect what partners need. You can send along questions and comments to her directly @amandajobbins.

We started the chat off with a few interview questions for Amanda to warm up, then answered audience questions:

LinkedIn operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 120 million members in over 200 countries and territories.

Professionals are signing up to join LinkedIn at a rate that is faster than two new members per second.

LinkedIn counts executives from all 2011 Fortune 500 companies as members; its corporate hiring solutions are used by 75 of the Fortune 100 companies.

With statistics as impressive as those, can your company afford not to be utilizing LinkedIn in its marketing strategy?

I’ll admit, LinkedIn is not a service that I check several times a day like I do other social media sites. But after sitting in on our latest Virtual Partner Velocity broadcast, which fellow Channels blogger Alex Krasne hosted and moderated, I think I’ll be changing my social media tune.

She gave key pointers on simple things you can do today to spruce up your LinkedIn profile and how to correctly use the features the powerful platform has to offer. Then, Heather answered questions that our audience tweeted in during the broadcast.

Couldn’t tune in to the broadcast? The video replay is available now.
The replay is available on the Partner Velocity site. Look for Heather Margolis in the list of events and click “View replay” to access the On Demand broadcast.After you watch the replay, complete the event survey on the Partner Velocity site to be entered into a sweepstakes to win a social media assessment and consulting from Channel Maven Consulting (US $1800 value).

After Heather presented, we took questions the audience submitted. Keep reading to check out the useful advice Heather had. Read More »

Well, we ran into some technical challenges during our latest Virtual Partner Velocity broadcast featuring best-selling author and presentation expert Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design. Although we were disappointed that we couldn’t offer our audience a live broadcast, we now have the video recording available for your viewing pleasure.

And to top it off, we’re going to couple this video with an hour-long live TweetChat session with Nancy on Tuesday, October 18 at 8 a.m. PST. So, be sure to jot down any questions you have as you’re watching the video. See, good things do come out of mishaps. (You can click this link or use the #channelschat hash tag to join the live chat.)

And don’t miss our next Virtual Velocity session on October 20 with channel strategist and blogger Heather Margolis who will share ways to leverage LinkedIn for B2B. Register now on the Partner Velocity site.

You may be wondering, “What the heck is a TweetChat and how do I join?” Read More »

Have you ever given what you thought was a compelling speech only to hear crickets instead of wild applause from your audience?

Have you ever given a sales pitch that fell flat?

Are you truly connecting with your audience and taking them on a journey or just talking at them?

Presentations are the currency of business communications. Those who master communicating with audiences–whether social media, sales pitches, lead generation, or traditional marketing–rise faster than their peers, reach more customers than their competitors, and turn causes into a groundswell.

Through Cisco’s Partner Velocity program, partners can learn marketing, social media best practices, and tips for engaging with customers from the industry’s leading experts. In our next Virtual Partner Velocity marketing session, we’ll be holding a live online broadcast featuring best-selling author and persuasion expert Nancy Duarte, CEO of Duarte Design.

During the hour-long session on October 11 at 8 a.m. PST, Nancy will demonstrate how to apply the methods in her book Resonate: Presenting Visual Stories That Transform Audiences and build meaningful connections with audiences that compel them to action. She’ll also take your questions live on the air.

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